Things to Know about RVing

So we are just finishing up our vacation--tonight is our last night on the road. I have been documenting some of our travels so I could blog them. I had hoped to do so on the road, but tonight is the first night I've had a decent enough signal to be able to do it, and had both children miraculously asleep at the same time. So here goes, the first in my 'travelogue' series. This was our first trip in an RV, so you could say this is the documentary about that experience. Here goes...

Ok, here’s the straight skinny on RVing. You’ve seen the “Go RVing” ads, so you see the pretty scenery and how RVing is portrayed to be the absolute bestest way to vacation ever ever EV-ER. Now I’m going to give you the real details about RVing that they don’t address in their marketing campaigns. You could say it’s full disclosure time. I’ll hit the highlights and good points about RVing tomorrow, but today is telling it like it is day.

First off, an RV is not exactly the ideal sleeping arrangement for preschoolers. Specifically, for preschool toddlers who are not used to sleeping in a real bed yet, but are too big for a pack and play. Our DD’s sleeping arrangement is in the over-the-cab bunk, which requires my DH to sleep with her so that she doesn’t fall out. There is the sofa, which folds flat into a bed, but it’s not long enough for DH, and she can’t sleep by herself without falling out of the bed. I have to sleep with DS, who still wakes up occasionally in the middle of the night because he needs to eat, so that leaves DH for DD guard rail duty.

The second reason it’s non-ideal is that there are just too many things for DD to use to distract herself instead of going to sleep. The windows all around the cab area are too tempting when she doesn’t want to go to sleep, and an RV campground provides ample distraction from the bedtime routine of stories and snuggling with her stuffed animals. This resulted in bedtime taking an hour or more for the first few nights, until she settled into the RV routine and got used to sleeping there.

And then there is the bathing issue. DD hates showers. There is only a shower in the RV. She point blank refuses to take a shower. Absolutely. Will. Not. So we have been sponge bathing her with wipes and washcloths, and she is due for a good soaking bath when we get home tomorrow. *shrug* Better that than have her damage the shower curtain trying to make her have a shower.

The RV plumbing and electrical systems are quite entertaining too. For novice RVers, especially us since we borrowed our neighbors’ RV, any time something seems to be going wrong has me having dollar signs flash in front of my eyes and gives DH heart palpitations. Thus far, we have had a turn signal cover blow off (see the “Blighted Idaho” blog later this week), we’ve damaged a window blind which we will have to repair ourselves or pay to have fixed, had the water pump spewing water out the tank at the side, the smoke/gas alarms beeping in the RV, and we’ve had the hot water heater boil over and spew hot water out the side of the RV (repeatedly). Now, none of these things are covered in the owners manual, just so you know. In fact, the owners manual is the most useless bunch of stapled together paper we have ever read. And you know it’s bad if we BOTH read the manual. The manual refers you to the “generator manual” or the “hot water heater manual” or “water pump manual”. You get the idea…suffice it to say that NONE of those manuals are actually IN the RV. So we have had to figure out what is normal and what is not normal from the helpful advice of other RVers in the RV parks, who come and knock on our door to let us know that water is spewing out the side. Thanks! (More on helpful fellow RVers tomorrow) Thank the Lord we haven’t had any issues with the toilet system, because I think that would be the last straw for us.

There are the things that are annoyances but you’re not quite sure if you could fix them. One of the side mirrors continually changes position, and just will not stay where we want it to. So the co-pilot usually has to do the checking on that side when lane changes are necessary. There are allen screws there, but we’re not sure if adjusting them would help, and we don’t want to break anything else so we’re just leaving it alone. And the water pump makes a very odd noise when it’s used sometimes, but again, we don’t have the manual, so we have no idea whether that is normal or not. It also doesn’t like it when we have the hot water running, and makes the same odd noise. We found out the day before we left that the water hook-up was broken by our neighbors’ brother-in-law, and the neighbors forgot about it and hadn’t fixed it. We asked if we could get it fixed for them, but they said that since it’s the busy season that most RV places wouldn’t be able to fix it on short notice, and they would fix it when we got back. Um, okay…but that meant we were restricted to the water tank. An annoyance, as it’s non-potable (supposedly) and so we’ve had to buy drinking water. Again, it’s the annoyance factor—and you’d like to fix it yourself, but when the neighbors sort of indicate not to bother, you can’t, because you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like and thus couldn’t even tell if an RV service center screwed up fixing it. So we have lived with it.

I’ve learned some important questions to ask about RV campsites, too. Such as, “Do you have busy train tracks right next to your campsite, where huge freight trains will buzz through all night long, blowing their horns and rattling your RV as they pass by?” Or, “Do you have crops planted in the field next door, where crop dusting planes will buzz the campsite repeatedly at 5 and then 6 am as they dust the crop?” These are important questions, you know. Ones I would have never thought of before we took this little vacation. Now I am extremely sleep-deprived, and I know better.

It also pays to be a bit skeptical about amenities advertised. One KOA campground advertised horses that the kids could feed and pet. Well we arrived, me having stupidly told DD repeatedly that there would be horses to pet, and after talking briefly with the owners I am told that “Well we don’t usually bring the horses out until later in the summer.” Grrrr. I politely mentioned how my DD was looking forward to seeing them, and they kindly offered to bring out some baby chicks for her to pet. Good enough, and she was happy with that. *Phew* Still, an important lesson to be learned there. Along the same lines, if they advertise an outdoor pool, it’s worth remembering that at higher elevations, it’s probably still frigidly cold and not likely to be something you’re interested in using unless it’s the height of August and it’s had time to bake and warm up for a few months. And from our experience, “WiFi internet access” probably means you will get two bars (max) of signal, which is utterly useless. If you want to use the internet, be prepared to go sit down at the store or restaurant, sucking in the cigarette fumes from smokers while you type (unless you have a wireless internet card which might work better at your own campsite).

And you know that RV gas mileage sucks. And I mean really sucks. That whole “9-10 miles per gallon” is if you have a level, straight, no-wind road. And that NEVER HAPPENS. Try 7 mpg, folks. Less if you are climbing up mountains. With gas at $3.15/gallon, that’s a big ouch.

Tomorrow, the good parts. But consider yourself adequately forewarned if you are contemplating an RV trip.